Robert Smalls Book Signing

Date: May 2, 2012
Contact: Bill Martin, [phone] x 11

Fort Sumter National Monument will host a book signing for the new publication The Life and Legacy of Robert Smalls of South Carolina's Sea Islands. The signing will be held at 2:15 PM on Friday, May 11, 2012 at Liberty Square, located at 340 Concord Street in Charleston.

Life and Legacy was written by Lu Ann Jones, National Park Service Historian and Robert K. Sutton, National Park Service Chief Historian, to increase awareness of the heroic Robert Smalls story. Historian Sutton, Park Superintendent Timothy Stone and Michael Moore, descendant of Robert Smalls, will address Smalls' importance. This event kicks off several others being held throughout the City of Charleston May 12-13 to commemorate the sesquicentennial anniversary of Smalls' daring escape from slavery during the Civil War.

The Robert Smalls story exemplifies the National Park Service's Civil War Sesquicentennial theme Civil War to Civil Rights. With the firing of the first shots of the Civil War onto Fort Sumter in April 1861 to the surrender of the Confederacy in April 1865 at Appomattox Court House, the Civil War redefined the nation with a price of over 620,000 lives lost. Once Smalls escaped to freedom, he continued his quest to dispel racial assumptions by serving with the Union military. After the war, he dedicated his life to achieving equality for all, holding a variety of public offices including a seat in the United States Congress.

This event is free and there is no entrance fee charged at Liberty Square. Copies of Life and Legacy will be available to purchase on site.

Fort Sumter National Monument is a unit of the National Park Service. Liberty Square is located at 340 Concord Street, Charleston, SC 29401, is open daily from 8:30 AM-5:00 PM. For more information, call [phone].